| Abstrakt: |
Over the past decade (2010s), a growing number of American voters have abandoned their political affiliations, seemingly disillusioned with the actions of their respective party and/or its candidates. This phenomenon will undoubtedly shift the political spectrum, having unforeseen consequences at every level government and in every aspect of the electioneering process. At a minimum, this shift away from traditional party status will have consequential impacts on closed primary systems. Unaffiliated voters currently comprise roughly 28% of the electorate in Florida and approximately 23% in New York. From these numbers alone, it is clear to see that the unaffiliated voter will have substantial impact on elections, either from their absence in primaries or their inclusion in general elections. Therefore, this paper will investigate trends in the unaffiliated populous at the county level, in the states of Florida and New York between 2012 and 2022. Through statistical analysis as well as the use of a geographic information system (GIS) and its resulting visuals, this paper will assist in elucidating party desertion variations at the county level in these two politically important states. Despite background level trends, all but one of the variables assessed in this study, which included things such as population, majority affiliation and year of occurrence, were not significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
